NEET-2018 to Have Same Question Paper in All Languages

This year the NEET was involved in a controversy since many students alleged that the questions in vernacular languages were of different difficully level than the English version. This year the test was conducted in 9 other languages besides English. These were Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Telugu, Kannada and Odia. Students in Tamil Nadu had approached the Madras High court alleging that the English version was tougher than the Tamil version of the questions. Cosequently the court on May 24th had stopped CBSE from announcing the results. It was only upon the intervention of the Supreme Court later that the CBSE was allowed to declare the NEET-2017 results.

Given this background, the Union HRD minister Mr. Prakash Javdekar yesterday said that from 2018, all languages would carry common questions, thereby ensuring the same level of difficulty across languages. "The vernacular question papers for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) - the all-India entrance examination for entrance to medical colleges - will just be translation of the question paper in English", the minister told reporters.

MyExamPlan view: We believe that in the ultra-competitive environment for undergraduate admissions in India for Medical seats, the exam conducting bodies must ensure the highest level of fairness and transparency. While we laud their efforts in helping many students get a fair chance to compete by introducing vernacular language question papers, we see no case for different difficulty levels based on language of the paper. The approach suggested by the minister is a welcome step in the right direction.